Figure 1

The BrainMap Procedure for Coordinate-Based Meta-Analyses. In the human neuroimaging literature, investigators frequently compute a series of statistical parametric images that summarize the group results observed in their functional or voxel-based morphometry neuroimaging experiments. From these images, the coordinates (x, y, z) of the activation clusters (or clusters of structural differences) are extracted and published in tabular format. Scribe is used to input these coordinates and the associated metadata for these experiments into the BrainMap functional or VBM databases. Once the entries are inserted into the appropriate database, Sleuth is used to search and retrieve coordinates and metadata, and filter the search results to create a data set suitable for meta-analysis. GingerALE is used to perform activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of the data, and these results can be viewed in Mango, or any similar image viewer. As an ancillary tool, the Cognitive Paradigm Ontology (CogPO) has been developed from the BrainMap schema for describing cognitive neuroimaging experiments, and can be used by any researcher to aid in the annotation and formal representation of their own experiments [52].